The present invention relates to door opening-closing apparatus for large-sized refrigerators and freezers, which apparatus is capable of unlocking and opening the door from within the compartment thereof.
As shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 1595/1966, a known door opening-closing apparatus capable of unlocking and opening the door from within the compartment comprises: a grip and an actuating lever pivotably attached to a grip seat secured to a door; a push rod penetrating the door from inside to outside and having the outer end thereof brought into contact with one end of the actuating lever; and a latch pivotably attached to the grip seat and having one end thereof brought into contact with the other end of the actuating lever, whereby pivoting the actuating lever by pushing the inner end of the push rod makes it possible to undo the engagement between a latch support secured to a side pillar of the compartment and the other end of the latch.
In the apparatus of this kind, since the grip seat has a large volume as compared with the grip and latch support, if the grip seat is reduced in size, the production cost of the whole of the apparatus is cut down correspondingly. However, a reduction in size of the grip seat means a decrease in length of the actuating lever arm. Consequently, in order to rotate the actuating lever by a required angle, it is necessary to allow the push rod to greatly project inside the compartment so that the stroke of the push rod becomes longer. Although the projecting length of the push rod inside the compartment must be determined so that the inner end of the push rod will not collide or rub against the side pillar when the door is opened or closed, the projecting length is primarily limited to a short length in the case where the push rod is provided closer to the side pillar owing to the reduction in size of the grip seat. In addition, when the push rod is disposed perpendicularly to the door such as in the conventional apparatus disclosed in the above-mentioned publication, the projecting length of the push rod is further limited. Therefore, there is naturally a limitation in reduction of the grip seat in size.